Also, much of the hoopla about the F-35 is that it can see further than all or most other aircraft so that it can do a lot of damage by standing off. Thus it is more like an aircraft carrier than a fighter jet.
We could have designed and deployed heavy lifting blimps at a fraction of the cost.
Perhaps partially true, but in reality the F-35 is a quantum leap in aircraft technology that is maturing so rapidly that both the systems and how they are deployed are are a work in progress that can only be fully exploited by having large scale in the field testing and development accomplished by the guys who aptly fly and fight with them.
Since so much of the F-35 is done in software, the evolution of the aircraft will be a constant work in progress of update and refinement until it's retired.
“We could have designed and deployed heavy lifting blimps at a fraction of the cost.”
blimps would be too slow ...
“Also, much of the hoopla about the F-35 is that it can see further than all or most other aircraft so that it can do a lot of damage by standing off. Thus it is more like an aircraft carrier than a fighter jet.”
You’re misinformed about the main role of the F-35, which is ground attack. The major point of stealth is to be able to go into heavily contested territory without being shot down. As the Israelis just showed over Iran, the F-35 is quite capable of doing that. Standoff weapons capability is also good for a variety of reasons, and the SDBs with 50+ mile range fill the bill there.
The F-35 will also do well in its secondary, air-to-air role. It has a great long range capability with the AMRAAM, and the AIM-9X Sidewinder gives it a high off-boresight capability. That means the pilot can cue the missile using his helmet, and the missile will turn and acquire that target without the plane having to point at it. Turn performance is much less important given that capability.
The ability for the F-35 to provide targeting for missiles coming from the other platforms is also important. This has already been demonstrated using a ship-launched SM-6 missile.